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Original Six Electro-clash: New York

Certainly, LCD Soundsystem, and the DFA empire at large, have been getting no shortage of buzz receently, but one track from the very strong DFA #2 compilation that appears to be at least napped-upon is the J.O.Y.'s "Sunplus." If the Slits were to make a dance music reunion album, with Coco Rosie in the production booth, it might sound like this. (Instead, the Slits' Cut has been re-released: studies have shown that girls who own this record are 56% less likely to be poisoned by their culture. If you know any girls who do not own this record, buy it for them here. I'm getting one for my 2 1/2 year old godchild, just to be safe.) Anyway, "Sunplus" is one of those tracks that goes from being hard to listen to to hard to stop listening to. If you want to show your friends just how much
cooler you are than them, you could even buy the 12"vinyl. J.O.Y. "Sunplus" DFA Compilation #2, DFA, 2004

it's me too. might dfa be overrated? may be too easy for people of a certain age (i.e., my age) to play rock criticism as dna game: 'if delta 5 and the au pairs were to combine with the gang of four and the raincoats and perform rogers and hart standards, that's what so and so sounds like.'

i love the references of course, but sometimes wonder whether they suffice. course, living where i'm living, i ain't going to be seeing any of it live soon. Not the best position from which to judge i know.

Gee, I didn't know LCD Soundsystem were famous, like. (And aren't they more Rhode Island than NY?) Ask me about the day I drove James Murphy and Pat Mahoney around Chicago. And James Murphy made my daughter cry.

I am eager to hear about driving LCD Soundsystem around Chicago, less eager to hear any story that involves tears on the faces of wee Skeen bairns. Thanks to Lee for the comments on the musicI in re criticism as DNA, esp when a sample of the music is there, tags along the lines of "Phil Lynnott fronting a Weimar-era cabaret orchestra produced by Phil Spector's autistic cousin" are usually more helpful to me than more abstract description, but, as in my (sadly imaginary) example above, it is easy for the description to become an end in itself. It is entirely possible that there are those making over-extravagant claims for DFA as the savior of music, but I do know that bumping the DFA #2 complilation in 05 has made life in Bush's America a little more bearable. As long as there are 15 minute disco songs sung in English, German, and French about wearing nothing but an overcoat, the light of freedom is not extinguished.